More Americans reading on all formats, says Pew survey

More Americans are reading, both in print and on electronic devices, says a new survey released by the Pew Research Center.

Roughly three-quarters of American adults read a book in some format in 2013, up four percentage points after a slight decrease in 2012, says the survey. On average, adults read 12 books over the past year.

An iPad mini on display at an Apple store in San Francisco. The percentage of adults who read an e-book rose from 23 percent in 2012 to 28 percent in 2013.(Photo by Noah Berger/Bloomberg 2012)

The popularity of e-books is steadily increasing, according to the survey. The percentage of adults who read an e-book rose from 23 percent in 2012 to 28 percent in 2013. The report also says few readers — only 4 percent of them — rely solely on e-books. Those with “the most diverse reading habits,” says the report, are audiobook listeners.

Conducted after the holiday season, the survey also found that half of American adults own either a tablet or an e-reader. In September, the figure was 43 percent.

The survey, conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1,005 adults ages 18 and older, was conducted for Pew by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from Jan 2-5. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.